EdTalk | Fees, fears and uncertainty: will parents’ frustrations about Hong Kong school closures and charges end up backfiring?

The process of applying to international schools in Hong Kong can push even the calmest of parents over the edge. It’s a notoriously competitive scene that repeats itself year after year. At Top Schools, we have been working with families for more than eight years to provide support and guidance each step of the way and place children in schools where they’re able to thrive.

Typically, we advise parents to get in touch at least one full year before they need a school place. Assessments and interviews begin around November, offers start to arrive in January, deposits are then made and we all relax.

When it comes to 2020-21 – it’s definitely not business as usual. Schools have been closed since the end of January and, in all likelihood, will remain closed for the remainder of the school year. Teachers and pupils are ploughing on with ‘home learning’ online. Many parents, at their wits’ end, are now coming to terms with the realisation that their children may not see the inside of a classroom again this academic year.

What many are struggling to reconcile themselves with, however, is the heavy financial burden they’re shouldering for the “reduced service” they’re now getting. The government has offered a small sweetener in the form of a one-off grant, but at just HK$3,500 per pupil, it’s peanuts compared to the annual cost of private school tuition, which ranges from HK$82,500 to HK$225,710 at primary level and HK$108,000 to HK$260,800 for secondary pupils.

Some parents have already withdrawn their children from schools they were otherwise happy with. Many more are considering doing the same. Others have simply stopped paying for the time being – some out of necessity, some due to procrastination, while some have just downright refused. Many are withholding payment for next term, deeply unhappy about continuing to pay in full for a service the schools can simply no longer provide. But while parents have been caught up in chatter demanding discounts and refunds for the current academic year, schools have been busy planning for next year, and instead of offering discounts, they’re forging ahead with fee increases and sending out demands for deposits.

Among the schools proposing fee hikes are Malvern College Hong Kong, which has put forward a 5.5 per cent increase, and The Harbour School, which is proposing a raise of between 4.45 per cent and 4.59 per cent.

Parents, some would say understandably, are incensed at what they see as complete insensitivity on the part of the schools. An online petition requesting the Education Bureau (EDB) to decline applications for fee increases received 100 signatures in just four hours after being launched on March 25. The next day, that number had jumped to 500 and is now over 1,000.